Say Anything (BoJack Horseman)
"Say Anything" | |
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Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris) stares out her office window at the city below as her phone alarm wishes her a happy fortieth birthday. Critics noted "Say Anything" has a noticeably darker ending than usual. | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 7 |
Directed by | Martin Cendreda |
Written by | Joe Lawson |
Produced by |
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Featured music | "Impossible" by Lyla Foy |
Original release date | August 22, 2014 |
Running time | 25 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
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"Say Anything" is the seventh episode of the
"Say Anything" received positive reviews from critics with praise for its jokes and storytelling. The episode was called a turning point in the series and for the title character, with a noticeably darker ending.
Synopsis
Cast
Voice roles throughout the episode:
- Will Arnett as BoJack Horseman (main)
- Princess Carolyn(main)
- Todd Chavez(main)
- Kevin Bigley as Quentin Tarantulino (guest appearance, parody of Quentin Tarantino) and Cameron Crow (parody of Cameron Crowe)
- Rachel Bloom as Laura (guest)
- Raphael Bob-Waksberg as Charley Witherspoon (guest)
- Vanessa Gekko(guest)
- Stephen Colbert as Mr. Witherspoon (guest)
- Adam Conover as Paparazzi Blue-Jay (guest)
- Dave Segal as Paparazzi Robin (guest)
- J. K. Simmons as Lenny Turteltaub (guest)
- Herb Kazzaz(guest)
Production
The episode was written by
Creator and showrunner of the series
In December 2021, Bob-Waksberg
Reception
"Say Anything" received positive reviews from critics with praise for its jokes and storytelling. The episode was called a turning point in the series and the title character with a darker ending. Rob Humanick from Slant ranked "Say Anything" as the sixth-best episode of the entire series.[8]
Les Chappell of The A.V. Club, in a review in 2017, opined that one significant reason the show is improving with each episode is that it devotes numerous episodes to its interesting side characters.[1] Chappell said "Say Anything" is the best early exploration of this, writing that Princess Carolyn is perhaps its best character.[1] She went on to say that BoJack Horseman exhibits "two strengths in its early episodes, its unique twist on show business and the emotional scars on its cast members, and 'Say Anything' gets top mileage out of both".[1] Slate's Marissa Martinelli called the episode a turning point in the series and the title character, saying it shows us BoJack is not just a "selfish jerk" but is instead a "barely scabbed-over wound of a person" who has received hurt and is now inflicting on those around him.[9] Martinelli went on to say it is the first time the show inflicted hurt in a real way, as opposed to "cartoonish".[9] Chappell applauded "Say Anything" saying it gave the show an increased level of storytelling.[1]
According to Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek, the episode has 191 jokes, meaning an average of 7.53 jokes per minute.[10] Bojalad commended the debut of the character Charley Witherspoon (voiced by Raphael Bob-Waksberg) saying he had the best dialogue joke and visual joke in the episode.[10] Chappell praised Joe Lawson's writing of jokes applauding both their high frequency and quality.[1]
Chappell noted Amy Sedaris's increased depth of voice acting in "Say Anything".[1] She and Humanick gave moderate praise to Stephen Colbert's voice acting as Mr. Witherspoon.[1][8] Chappell criticized the episode's immediate dismissal of the blackmail plot.[1] She said it was built in three previous episodes but is shut down by Vanessa with legal statutes.[1] She went on to say "The writers were going for something when they introduced it, but as an ongoing arc it never achieved its true potential."[1] Bojalad praised the ending as both "equally tragic and somehow darkly hilarious".[10] Chappell called the ending a "deeply melancholy moment" with no sign of dark comedy.[1] Chappell added: "All the episodes to date have ended on darkly comic punchlines or moments of foreshadowing. This? There's nothing funny about this."[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Chappell, Les (February 9, 2017). "Princess Carolyn takes the reins in a clever and melancholy BoJack Horseman". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
- Slate. Archivedfrom the original on August 22, 2014. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
- ^ a b c d Lambe, Stacy (July 19, 2016). "My Favorite Scene: 'BoJack Horseman' Creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg on the Episode That Made Netflix Nervous". Entertainment Tonight. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
- ^ Shout! Factory. Event occurs at 14:55.
Amy Sedaris: Is there anybody that you reached out to, to ask to see if they could do something on the show that they couldn't do it like anybody you really wanted but couldn't? Raphael Bob-Waksberg: Oh yeah. AS: Oh, lots of people? RBW: Oh definitely this actually relates to this relates to this episode. There's a great example because yeah, all the time we reach out to people, this is Kristin Chenoweth is amazing, but all the time we reach out to people and they don't do it. So this episode is called "Say Anything" and Princess Carolyn's favourite movie uh is Jerry Maguire and the whole episode was constructed as a little bit of like a tribute to Cameron Crowe and the writer of this episode Joe Lawson is a huge Cameron Crow fan um and there's a cameo later where we tried to get Cameron Crowe to play himself and he ended and there's a there's a famous story where in Jerry Maguire Cameron Crowe really wanted his uh hero and idol Billy Wilder to cameo in Jerry Maguire and he begged Billy Wilder to do it and Billy Wilder said no I'm too old I'm too tired I'm busy I don't want to do it. So when we were doing this episode of I went oh this is perfect Joe you should write Cameron Crowe a letter about how he's your hero and how much you love him and then how we want him to cameo on the show and then because he obviously remember how he felt when his hero turned him down of course he'll say yes of course he'll want to he'll want to do the show so Joe wrote this like very sincere letter and we sent it to him and we heard back that he was too busy he didn't want to do it. AS: Oh after all that. RBW: So we ended up getting Kevin Bigley play played the part after all that he was busy editing Aloha. AS: Oh my god. RBW: He coulda just come in you know how long it takes. Takes like 20 minutes he could have done it easy. But now I'm worried that telling that story, you know, and I've said like oh Cameron Crowe even though he wouldn't be there for his hero even though he couldn't his hero couldn't be there for him but then when he was the hero he wouldn't be there. I feel like someone's going to listen to this and then write me a letter and be like hey Rafael well you would be in my thing you're my hero. I'm going to be like no I don't, I don't want to so I understand how it gets paid forward.
- ^ a b c Baron, Reuben (December 7, 2021). "BoJack Horseman Creator Reveals a David Fincher Joke Netflix Vetoed". CBR. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Grater, Tom (December 8, 2021). "'BoJack Horseman' Creator Raises Money For Trans Charity By Releasing David Fincher Scene That Netflix Pulled". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
- ^ Raphael Bob-Waksberg [@RaphaelBW] (December 8, 2021). "Honestly, who knows? That was my read at the time, but I went back and read their note and I think probably they just didn't think it was that funny. In any case, the show didn't suffer without it. Good night, everybody!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on April 11, 2022 – via Twitter.
- ^ a b Humanick, Rob (February 4, 2020). "Every BoJack Horseman Episode, Ranked". Slant. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
- ^ a b Martinelli, Marissa (December 10, 2019). "The BoJack Horseman Episode That Explains Why It's One of the Decade's Best TV Shows". Slate. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
- ^ a b c Bojalad, Alec (September 6, 2017). "BoJack Horseman Season 1 Jokes Per Minute". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
External links
- "Say Anything" at IMDb